Belarus: "Security, peace and order"? Violations in the wake of elections in Belarus

On 20 December 2010, 30,000 people gathered in Minsk to express their frustration with the way the elections were conducted and to call for change. The demonstration was overwhelmingly peaceful. The reaction of the authorities, however, has been both brutal and chilling. The clampdown that has followed the Presidential elections marks a new low for the respect for human rights in Belarus that can only be reversed by the prompt release of all prisoners of conscience and independent investigations into the violations that have taken place.